Imogen, Jack, Ella and Ivy Collins. Ivy was swept away in flood waters during Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / supplied
WARNING: This article describes the death of a 2-year-old girl and may be upsetting for some readers.
A mother who lost a 2-year-old daughter when Cyclone Gabrielle floods destroyed her “perfect” life says official warnings came far too late.
“We would never have put our babies to bed that night if we had any understanding of what was coming,” Ella Collins told a coroner’s inquiry.
“We would have left if we had received any warning or any evacuation recommendation.”
Collins gave evidence yesterday at the long-running inquiry into the deaths of 19 people during the extreme weather in early 2023.
Toddler Ivy Collins was lifted from Ella Collins’ shoulders after she lost her footing in the floodwaters as she, her husband Jack and 4-year-old daughter Imogen escaped their inundated home.
Ella Collins had been woken about 4am on February 14, 2023, by the sound of water gushing, and stepped out of bed into ankle-deep water.
Within 30 minutes, the water rose to chest height, she told the coroner.
Collins said, looking back on old social media posts, she had been “boastfully happy”, with two children and one on the way, in their home at North Shore Rd, Whirinaki, north of the Esk River mouth in Hawke’s Bay.
After the loss of Ivy, however, “our family is broken in ways I cannot articulate”.
Collins said that as the flooding worsened and started moving furniture around in the house, the parents told the girls they were “going on an adventure” to escape.
They told them to hold on and not let go.
The family waded out into the flood, heading for a two-storey dwelling two doors away, which they identified as the highest point nearby.
At first, the movement of water had been erratic and non-directional but, as Ella Collins, carrying Ivy, stepped across a driveway, she was hit by a “large torrent” with an overwhelming directional flow.
“The change was abrupt and very unexpected and that sudden transition from rising non-directional flood water to an incredibly directional current caused us both to lose our footing,” she said.
Ella could no longer touch the bottom.
The flow pushed Ella under the water and lifted Ivy off her shoulders and “as I came out of the water I saw her floating face down away from me”.
“I screamed to Jack, ‘I’ve lost Ivy’.”
Jack pulled Ella to a hedge he was holding and she took Imogen from him before he dived in to try to rescue Ivy, screaming her name.
“All this happened in a matter of seconds. It was incredible,” Ella Collins said.
Jack Collins was immediately swept away in the torrent, before catching hold of a tree about 25m away.
It was “nothing short of a miracle” that he managed to make his way back to Ella and Imogen, but he could not save Ivy.
Ivy’s body was later found on a neighbouring property.
Ella, Jack and Imogen were rescued from a neighbour’s house by helicopter, after Jack suffered a spinal injury kicking their way through onto the roof.
“My husband broke his spine that night and has not been able to return to work,” Ella Collins said.
He has also developed grand-mal seizures.
Imogen, now 7, struggled daily with the loss of her sister and the “debilitating” trauma she lived through that night.
Collins said the family had received a telephone warning from the council in the days before a lesser flood in 2018.
She believed the same would happen if there was danger from the approaching Cyclone Gabrielle.
“We were very much led to believe that if we were in danger we would be contacted.”
She had kept an eye on council and Civil Defence media before Cyclone Gabrielle and most of the warnings were about conserving water, avoiding flushing toilets and staying out of floodwaters.
Collins said further warnings were issued later in the morning of February 14, but by then it was too late.
“I think we have a right to be informed. When our safety is at risk, we have a right to be informed and to make our own decisions based on that information.”
Collins contrasted the information issued ahead of Cyclone Gabrielle with the warnings that were given last week for Cyclone Vaianu.
“We can look at this weekend that’s just been and see that homes were evacuated along the coast because there was a threat,” she said.
“Was there major impact? Thankfully no, but if there had been ...”
Coroner Erin Woolley said that if people have information given to them, they are able to make their own decisions.
“I agree with you that there needs to be more proactive evacuations,” she told Collins.
Coroner Woolley resumed hearings in Hastings yesterday as she investigates the circumstances surrounding 19 deaths.
Four people died during the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods a fortnight before Cyclone Gabrielle.
Nine died as Gabrielle battered the east coast. Two firefighters were killed at Muriwai.
The coroner is also investigating the disappearance of a man driving from Napier to Gisborne on the night of Cyclone Gabrielle and three later deaths suspected to have been suicides.
Ric Stevens spent many years working for the former New Zealand Press Association news agency, including as a political reporter at Parliament, before holding senior positions at various daily newspapers. He joined NZME’s Open Justice team in 2022 and is based in Hawke’s Bay.